Religion enters ObamaCare debate as Sotomayor halts mandate for group of nuns

The White House responded Wednesday to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor halting a birth control mandate in ObamaCare for a Catholic organization, saying the group isn't subject to the requirement because it doesn't apply to self-funded church plans.

Sotomayor issued the order late Tuesday, one day before parts of the health care law were set to go into effect.

In her order, Sotomayor said the government is temporarily prevented from enforcing contraceptive coverage requirements against the Denver-based Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged and must respond by 10 a.m. Friday.

The White House said the Justice Department has already made clear the mandate doesn't apply to such organizations and that it defers to the agency on litigation matters.

'But [we] remain confident that our final rules strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing non-profit religious employers with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage,' the White House said.

Several organizations, including the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Catholic University and the Michigan Catholic Conference, had asked other justices to block the law until their arguments were heard. Parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, go into effect New Year's Day.

On that day, 'a regulatory mandate will expose numerous Catholic organizations to draconian fines unless they abandon their religious convictions and take actions that facilitate access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization for their employees and students,' lawyer Noel J. Francisco had said in appeals to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan.

The law requires employers to provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives.

The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the constitutionality of the core of the Affordable Care Act, saying its insurance mandate and the tax penalty enforcing it fell within the power of Congress to impose taxes.

The Obama administration crafted a compromise, or accommodations, that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan's outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.

That isn't enough, Francisco said.

'In short, under the accommodation, applicants must authorize their third party administrators or insurance companies to provide the very products and services they find morally objectionable,' he said. 'Suffice it to say, the 'accommodation' does not resolve applicants' religious objection to participation in this regulatory scheme.'

Roberts and Kagan handle emergency requests for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Sixth Circuit. They can act by themselves or involve the rest of the court.

Federal judges have refused to issue stays in these cases, and the appeals courts have not ruled on the request for an injunction.

Francisco said 11 federal judges have entered permanent or preliminary injunctions against the birth control mandate as it applies to nonprofit religious organizations, while six have refused to do so.

Francisco said that if Catholic organizations don't comply with the law, they face 'fines of $100 a day per affected beneficiary' and if they drop their health care coverage, 'they will be subject to an annual fine of $2,000 per full-time employee after the first 30 employees, and/or face ruinous practical consequences due to their inability to offer a crucial health care benefit to employees.'

He added: 'In short, applicants are faced with a stark choice: violate their religious beliefs or pay potentially crippling fines.'

It was not immediately known when the justices would act.

More than 90 million individuals participate in health plans excluded from the scope of the mandate, Francisco said. 'The government, however, has steadfastly refused to create a broader religious exemption, either for individuals seeking to run their businesses in accordance with their faith or for nonprofit religious organizations beyond houses of worship,' he said.

On Wednesday, Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt applaud Justice Sotomayor's move.

'The Obama administration's HHS mandate is an egregious and blatant violation of the religious freedom that Americans have enjoyed for more than 220 years since the ratification of the First Amendment,' he said. 'No American should be forced to surrender their religious freedom or abandon their deeply held religious beliefs.'

The justices have already agreed to rule on whether businesses may use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees. The court will consider two cases involving Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees, and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets.

Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts while Conestoga Wood Specialties lost. The combined cases probably will be argued in late March with a decision coming by summer.

Fox News' Shannon Bream, Joseph Weber and news3blog.blogspot.com contributed to this report.